719 walks across Wales

• Berwyn and Lake Vyrnwy

  Meifod and the Vyrnwy Valley

  A gentle circuit from a village that was once the religious centre of the kingdom of Powys, through the broad green Vyrnwy valley.

  3.1 mi1 hr 45 Moderate
• Berwyn and Lake Vyrnwy

  Llanwddyn and the Dam

  A short circuit below the Vyrnwy dam through the woods of the rebuilt village, with the old village lying under the water above you.

  2.5 mi1 hr 25 Moderate
• Eryri: Ogwen and the Carneddau

  Llyn Idwal

  A circuit of a lake in a hanging valley under the Devil’s Kitchen, and the walk that most people in Wales do first when they want mountain scenery without a mountain.

  2.8 mi1 hr 30 Moderate
• Eryri: Ogwen and the Carneddau

  Tryfan

  There is no walking route up Tryfan. Every way to the top involves using your hands, and the mountain has a long record of catching people out who did not expect that.

  3.7 mi4 hr 30 Strenuous
• Eryri: Ogwen and the Carneddau

  Glyder Fawr and the Devil’s Kitchen

  Up the steep ground beside Twll Du onto a summit plateau covered in shattered rock, which looks like nowhere else in Wales.

  5.6 mi5 hr Strenuous
• Eryri: Ogwen and the Carneddau

  Carnedd Llewelyn from Cwm Eigiau

  The back way onto the second highest mountain in Wales, through an empty cwm that most visitors never see. Long, wild and usually deserted.

  8.1 mi5 hr 30 Strenuous
• Eryri: Ogwen and the Carneddau

  Aber Falls

  Wide track up a wooded valley to a waterfall that drops around forty metres off the edge of the Carneddau. Easy to reach and genuinely impressive after rain.

  3.1 mi1 hr 30 Moderate
• Eryri: Yr Wyddfa and Llanberis

  Yr Wyddfa by the Llanberis Path

  The longest, gentlest and busiest way up the highest mountain in Wales. It follows the railway most of the way, which tells you both how steady the gradient is and how many people are on it.

  9.0 mi5 hr 30 Strenuous
• Eryri: Yr Wyddfa and Llanberis

  Yr Wyddfa by the Pyg and Miners’ Tracks

  The classic round: up one and down the other, with the lakes of Cwm Dyli below you for most of it. Shorter than the Llanberis path and considerably more interesting.

  7.1 mi5 hr 30 Strenuous
• Eryri: Yr Wyddfa and Llanberis

  Llyn Padarn and the Slate Quarries

  Circuit of the lake below Llanberis, through oak woodland and the enormous terraced quarry that made the village. Good when the mountains are in cloud.

  3.7 mi1 hr 40 Moderate
• Eryri: Yr Wyddfa and Llanberis

  Moel Eilio Ridge

  The grassy hills west of Llanberis, walked as a horseshoe. Nothing like the crowds on Yr Wyddfa opposite, and the view of it from here is the best there is.

  6.8 mi4 hr 30 Strenuous
• Eryri: Yr Wyddfa and Llanberis

  Nant Peris and the Old Pass Road

  Quieter way into the Llanberis Pass, following the old road and field paths below the crags where climbing in Britain largely began.

  4.3 mi3 hr Demanding
• Eryri: Cadair Idris and the Mawddach

  Cadair Idris by the Pony Path

  The most straightforward way up a mountain that feels far bigger than its height, with a summit shelter and a view that runs from Pembrokeshire to Eryri.

  5.9 mi5 hr Strenuous
• Eryri: Cadair Idris and the Mawddach

  Mawddach Trail

  Nine miles of old railway along the southern shore of the Mawddach estuary, flat and traffic-free the whole way, with Cadair Idris above and the tide going in and out beside you.

  9.3 mi3 hr 30 Moderate
• Eryri: Cadair Idris and the Mawddach

  Precipice Walk

  A level path cut round the flank of Foel Cynwch, giving one of the great views in Wales for almost no climbing. The name oversells the danger and undersells the view.

  3.1 mi1 hr 30 Moderate
• Eryri: Cadair Idris and the Mawddach

  Cregennan Lakes

  Two lakes on a shelf high above the Mawddach, with Cadair Idris rising directly behind and the view that turns up on half the postcards in Meirionnydd.

  2.5 mi1 hr 20 Moderate
• Eryri: Cadair Idris and the Mawddach

  Torrent Walk

  Short path along a wooded gorge where the Afon Clywedog drops through a series of falls and pools. Sheltered, green and very good after rain.

  1.9 mi1 hr Moderate
• Eryri: Cadair Idris and the Mawddach

  Rhaeadr Ddu and the Gold Mine

  Wooded valley with a black waterfall and the ruins of the Cefn Coch gold mine above it, in the middle of what was once a Welsh gold rush.

  2.5 mi1 hr 30 Moderate
• Eryri: Rhinogydd and Harlech

  The Roman Steps, Cwm Bychan

  Paved packhorse route climbing through a rocky pass in the Rhinogydd, in some of the roughest and least visited country in Eryri.

  3.7 mi2 hr 30 Demanding
• Eryri: Ffestiniog and the Moelwynion

  Moelwyn Mawr and Llyn Stwlan

  Up past the high dam of the Ffestiniog pumped storage scheme onto a shapely summit, with quarry ruins and one of the best views of Eryri from the south.

  5.0 mi4 hr Strenuous
• Eryri: Ffestiniog and the Moelwynion

  Cnicht

  The Welsh Matterhorn, which it only resembles from one particular angle, but the ridge walk to the top is genuinely fine and much quieter than anything nearer Yr Wyddfa.

  5.3 mi4 hr Strenuous
• Eryri: Ffestiniog and the Moelwynion

  Llyn Mair and Coed Plas Tan y Bwlch

  Oak woodland and a small lake in the Vale of Ffestiniog, with the narrow gauge railway running through the trees above.

  2.5 mi1 hr 20 Moderate
• Llŷn Peninsula

  Tre’r Ceiri and Yr Eifl

  The best preserved Iron Age hillfort in Britain, sitting on a mountain top above the sea, with the stone walls of a hundred and fifty huts still standing waist high.

  3.1 mi2 hr 15 Demanding
• Llŷn Peninsula

  Porthdinllaen

  Round the headland to a row of cottages and a pub sitting directly on the beach, reached only on foot. One of the strangest and best places to end a walk in Wales.

  3.1 mi1 hr 40 Moderate
• Llŷn Peninsula

  Uwchmynydd and the Bardsey Sound

  The very end of the Llŷn, looking across a mile of fierce tidal water to Bardsey. The pilgrim route to the island finished here and it still feels like the end of something.

  2.8 mi1 hr 40 Moderate
• Llŷn Peninsula

  Llanbedrog Headland

  A short steep climb above a beach lined with painted huts to an iron man on the headland, with the whole of Cardigan Bay opening up behind him.

  2.2 mi1 hr 15 Moderate
• Anglesey

  South Stack and Holyhead Mountain

  Sea cliffs packed with breeding seabirds, a lighthouse on its own island, and the highest point on Anglesey behind them.

  3.1 mi1 hr 50 Moderate
• Anglesey

  Llanddwyn Island and Newborough Warren

  Through pine forest and dunes to a tidal island with two lighthouses, a ruined chapel and the best view of Eryri anywhere in Wales.

  4.3 mi2 hr 20 Moderate
• Anglesey

  Moelfre and the Coast Path

  A stretch of the Anglesey coast path past a lifeboat station with an extraordinary record, the site of a famous wreck, and a Neolithic burial chamber inland.

  3.7 mi2 hr Moderate
• Conwy Valley and the North Coast

  The Great Orme

  Limestone headland above Llandudno with Bronze Age copper mines inside it, wild goats on top and a road round the outside that has been a tourist attraction since the Victorians.

  5.0 mi2 hr 40 Moderate
• Conwy Valley and the North Coast

  Conwy Mountain

  A low ridge running west from the castle town with a hillfort on top and the whole coast, the estuary and Eryri visible at once. Big reward for a modest climb.

  4.3 mi2 hr 30 Moderate
• Conwy Valley and the North Coast

  Aberglaslyn Pass and the Fisherman’s Path

  A path clinging to the rock beside a river running through a gorge, with the narrow gauge railway in tunnels above. Often called the most beautiful spot in Wales, which for once is arguable rather than absurd.

  3.7 mi2 hr Demanding
• Clwydian Range and Vale of Clwyd

  Moel Famau

  The highest of the Clwydian hills, topped by the stump of a jubilee tower that fell down in a gale. A steady climb on a made path and one of the busiest hills in north-east Wales.

  2.5 mi1 hr 30 Moderate
• Clwydian Range and Vale of Clwyd

  Moel Arthur and Penycloddiau

  Two hillforts on the northern Clwydians, linked by open ridge. Penycloddiau is one of the largest hillforts in Wales and almost nobody walks it.

  5.0 mi3 hr Demanding
• Dee Valley and Llangollen

  Castell Dinas Brân and the Panorama

  Up to a ruined castle on a cone of a hill above Llangollen, then along a terrace road under the limestone cliffs of Eglwyseg with the Dee valley below.

  5.0 mi2 hr 50 Demanding
• Dee Valley and Llangollen

  Pontcysyllte Aqueduct

  Walking a towpath a hundred and twenty feet above the Dee on a cast iron trough with no railing on the water side. A World Heritage Site and a genuinely unnerving experience.

  3.7 mi1 hr 50 Easy
• Wrexham and Flintshire

  Erddig Country Park

  Parkland and woodland walks around a country house that is famous less for the family than for the servants they photographed and wrote poems about.

  3.1 mi1 hr 40 Moderate
• Wrexham and Flintshire

  Flint Castle and the Dee Estuary

  Flat surfaced path along the estuary from the first of Edward I’s Welsh castles, with enormous skies and enormous numbers of wading birds.

  3.7 mi1 hr 50 Easy
• Clwydian Range and Vale of Clwyd

  Loggerheads and the Leete Path

  Limestone gorge with a river running through it, an old lead-mining watercourse cut into the cliff, and enough tree cover to make it a good wet weather choice.

  2.5 mi1 hr 20 Moderate
• North Pembrokeshire Coast

  St Davids Head

  Round the headland at the western tip of Wales, past a Neolithic burial chamber and an Iron Age fort, with Ramsey Island offshore and Ireland over the horizon.

  3.7 mi2 hr 10 Moderate
• North Pembrokeshire Coast

  Strumble Head

  One of the best places in Britain to watch for porpoises, dolphins and passing seabirds, on a switchback stretch of coast path with a lighthouse on an island below.

  4.3 mi2 hr 30 Demanding
• South Pembrokeshire Coast

  Marloes Peninsula

  Full circuit of a peninsula with an Iron Age fort on the point, an island bird reserve offshore, and a mile of red sandstone beach on the southern side.

  5.6 mi3 hr Demanding
• South Pembrokeshire Coast

  Bosherston Lily Ponds and Barafundle

  Man-made lakes covered in water lilies leading down to a beach that regularly gets called one of the best in the world, reached only on foot.

  5.6 mi3 hr Moderate
• South Pembrokeshire Coast

  Green Bridge of Wales and Stack Rocks

  A limestone arch and two sea stacks packed with guillemots, on a flat clifftop path across a live artillery range. Short, level and spectacular.

  2.5 mi1 hr 20 Easy
• Preseli Hills

  Foel Drygarn

  A hillfort with three enormous Bronze Age cairns inside its ramparts, at the eastern end of the Preseli ridge. Big views over Pembrokeshire and Cardigan Bay for a modest climb.

  3.1 mi1 hr 50 Moderate
• Preseli Hills

  The Golden Road and Carn Menyn

  Ancient ridge route across open moor, passing the rock outcrops from which the Stonehenge bluestones were taken. Empty, exposed and layered with prehistory.

  5.0 mi3 hr Demanding
• Preseli Hills

  Pentre Ifan and Tycanol Wood

  The finest Neolithic burial chamber in Wales, and an ancient oak wood nearby that has never been cleared, full of lichen and twisted trees.

  2.8 mi1 hr 35 Moderate
• Ceredigion Coast

  New Quay Cliffs and Bird Rock

  Cliff path north from a harbour town, past a seabird colony, in the best place in Wales to see bottlenose dolphins from dry land.

  3.7 mi2 hr 10 Demanding
• Ceredigion Coast

  Mwnt and Foel y Mwnt

  A tiny whitewashed church above a cove, with a steep grassy cone behind it that gives one of the great views of Cardigan Bay for ten minutes of climbing.

  2.8 mi1 hr 35 Moderate
• Ceredigion Coast

  Constitution Hill

  The hill at the north end of Aberystwyth prom, with a cliff railway, a camera obscura at the top and the whole of Cardigan Bay laid out below.

  3.1 mi1 hr 50 Moderate

These are route guides, not turn-by-turn directions. Take the relevant OS Explorer map, check the weather, and tell someone where you are going.